I returned to the history genre for the next book in the 2013 reading list – or so I thought. The Road to Salem is a “constructed” memoir – historian and archivist Adelaide Fries (a descendant of the original Moravian settlers she writes about) tells, though the use of the autobiography of Anna Catharina Antes- Kalberlahn/Reuter/Heinzmann/Ernst (yep, she was […]
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S&R Poetry: “Rebuked,” by MJ De Angelis
Rebuked Because the thunderstorm needed watching, I rocked on the front porch to behold the night scolded by lightning. Above me a buzzing bulb drew a twisting cloud of insects. When they reached it, they ricocheted, scalded and blind. _____ M.J. De Angelis lives on the Lamprey River in Durham, New Hampshire and enjoys fly […]
WordsDay: Maugham’s the word…
The 2013 book list is moving along at its own steady pace as I complete Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (a book I’ve read about a dozen times and am savoring as I plan a long piece on what for me is the great Jane’s most problematic work), so I’ve decided to write something about a book I finished late last […]
WordsDay: Don’t panic, it’s 42…uh, what was the question…?
I am no fan of science fiction. When I was in college I had a bandmate who loved the stuff – he pushed Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, and Herbert’s Dune on me. I waded though all this stuff diligently (one of my neuroses is that once I begin a book I have to finish it – […]
S&R Poetry: Five poems from Samantha Milowsky
Untitled Send a god symbol through our daisy-chained heads— fix the fireflies in our throats, drown receivers for impending dreams, stammering the dulcimer, name me kin, gentle conquest of meat, torrents of mania, polite chained cameos, unchained epochs of light roused over and over, come the shadows between the hours, falling on the same backseats […]
S&R Fiction: “The Couple at the Corner Table,” by Mark Sumioka
I didn’t pay much attention to the little things: strangers, antics, and matters of triviality. I saw straight ahead. I saw whatever was necessary. Expending further energy would require a matter of significance. And that was what kept me safe each time I walked home from work with a load of cash in my pockets. […]
Not by Fire, but by Ice – thinking through the politics of now
Ice is the Rodney Dangerfield of basic elements. It gets no respect. “Is there a Greek god of ice?” someone posted on Ask.com. The answer came back, “Are you kidding me? Have you been to Greece? Why would they have an ice god?” It’s easy to understand why Greece might not have an ice god, […]
Wilderness worth getting lost in—a review of Lance Weller’s “Wilderness”
No Civil War battlefield offers a writer more metaphoric possibility than the Wilderness. Not only was the Wilderness a virtually impenetrable second-growth forest—“the dark, close wood” and “one of the waste places of nature,” as soldiers called it—but the very idea of “wilderness” suggests a place and a time of being directionless and lost. One […]
WordsDay: a couple of recommendations
First, I hope you checked out today’s outstanding S&R LitJournal offering from Changming Yuan. If not, you really oughta. Second, in addition to being a talented writer, Changming also edits Poetry Pacific in Vancouver. Give it a look. In particular, I really liked the set from Laurence Overmire – very vivid and immediate, I thought. Finally, […]
S&R Poetry: “Directory of Destinies: A Parallel Poem” by Changming Yuan
- Believe it or not, the ancient Chinese 5-Agent Principle accounts for us all. 1/ Water (born in a year ending in 2 or 3) -helps wood but hinders fire; helped by metal but hindered by earth with her transparent tenderness coded with colorless violence she is always ready to support or sink the powerful […]
S&R Poetry: “Morning on a Patio” by Bryce Albertson
Dewdrop bodies melt together like tallow candles in firebombed Dresden, while hummingbirds dogfight over nectar, ruby and false, here in this place, where the butterflies come to die.
S&R Poetry: Two poems from John Minser
Blood and Calendars There is deep terror in how the world wants to curl around your hand. It is almost too easy. Monuments collapse with a push. Let’s place boundaries on the sea before us. String up ropes. Too much time, too little motivation. I want to play video games for whole afternoons. I want […]
S&R Poetry: "Timing," by Laurin Wolf
Timing Is time a thought that we create, a crack in space meant to alleviate the ache, harness worn on the wrist like a shackled prison bitch? I wonder what is at stake if time is sent away, eternity swept up in flame, forgotten like rampage. Avoid the tick and tock purposefully, and go on […]
The incompleteness of the soul: an insider's non-review of Completeness of the Soul: The Life and Opinions of Jay Breeze, Rock Star
I’ve been thinking about Completeness of the Soul: The Life and Opinions of Jay Breeze, Rock Star, the third novel from my friend and fellow scrogue Jim Booth. I finished reading it a few days ago, but for me it’s been a slightly disjointed experience because I’ve seen most of it in its pieces before: chapters like […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- Profiling the Tea Party: In defense of the IRS. Sorta. Or not.
- Saturday Video Roundup: “Imagine the Band,” by John Lennon and Wings
- The Rest is Noise (6)—Descent into the Maelstrom
- I hate handguns, but I have still considered owning one
- Redneck jokes are racist
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Samuel Smith: One more thing. Re: Organizing for Action and othe…
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wufnik: I tend to agree. There are a couple of other thing…
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Jim Booth: May be much to what you say, here, Wuf. Think abou…
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Frank Dilatush: Interesting Sam, I thought I spoke _directly_ to t…
